Another group of floaters was rescued Sunday from a raft-eating logjam on the Flathead River — the third incident there over the last two weeks and one of many that have occurred elsewhere on the river.

“It’s been pretty much call after call every week,” said Brian Heino, Flathead County Search and Rescue coordinator and a member of the county’s swift-water rescue team.

Heino said emergency responders have been encountering too many floaters who aren’t wearing life jackets and people who don’t know the rivers well enough.

“The main concern that we have is that a lot of these folks don’t have life jackets on,” he said. “That section of river is usually known for pretty recreational floating, but these rivers change.”

The logjam on the main stem of the Flathead River — upstream of an island just north of the Spruce Park On the River campground and the Montana 35 bridge — is about 50 feet wide and 15 feet thick. 

“It’s a huge logjam,” Heino said. “It’s really solid.”  

Evergreen Fire Chief Craig Williams said his department responded at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday for four floaters who were stranded on the logjam. A couple of emergency responders swam to the logjam, and later search and rescue and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks arrived with a rescue boat. 

“What we’re consistently seeing is a lack of life jackets and they are floating too late in the evening,” Williams said, noting that hazards on the river are harder to spot in the twilight hours.

“I know we have a kayak in there and at least two rafts,” Williams said of the watercraft that remain trapped in the logjam.

On July 2, a group of 10 floaters was rescued from the logjam in the dark, and some of those people were using flotation devices without oars.

“They don’t have directional control,” Heino said. “I don’t think they can effectively steer around hazards on the river.”

Another group was rescued Friday after their raft got sucked under the logjam. 

Heino said there also have been several incidents above Glacier Rim on the North Fork Flathead River, some of them requiring emergency responses.

The hazard there is a shelf that creates a strong hydraulic that has been flipping rafts and then holding the raft in the hydraulic for as long as 30 minutes.

“I’m sure there’s a lot more instances that we don’t get contacted on,” said Heino, who speculates people have been able to rescue themselves after flipping at that location.

Heino urges floaters to wear proper life jackets and be wary of new conditions on the river that emerged due to this spring’s high flows. 

“We’re seeing a lot more boaters on the river, and presumably it’s because of the warmer weather and the high water,” he said.

Asked if there is anything that could be done about the big logjam, Heino said that is unlikely. 

“The mass of this thing, if we cut this out we’re more than likely to cause another jam downstream,” he said, adding that it is just one of many logjams that are potential hazards throughout the Flathead River system.

Trying to address those hazards “would be an endeavor we would probably never be able to keep up with,” he said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.